Brother of man who
killed parents, self
described gruesome
scene to operator

Lee County faces conference
foes Apex at 7 tonight at home
in the fourth round of the state
4-A baseball playoffs
Page 1B

By BILLY BALL
bball@sanfordherald.com

ENTERTAINMENT

ASHLEY GARNER/The Sanford Herald

Arriana Ballard spins around and around in the swings at Kiwanis Children’s Park in this Herald file
photo.

‘LOST’ FINALE STIRS
EVEN MORE QUESTIONS
For six seasons, the ABC
mystical thriller has kept its
audience guessing and arguing
as well as entertained. But
after the much-awaited finale,
criticism and debate went into
hyperdrive.
Page 9A

New way to play
Lee County Parks & Recreation outlines a $27k
plan to give Sanford’s kid-friendly park a facelift
By BILLY BALL
bball@sanfordherald.com

GULF OIL SPILL

FEDS CAN’T STEP IN FOR
BP IN CLEAN-UP EFFORT
The Obama administration’s
point man on the oil spill
rejected the notion of removing
BP and taking over the crisis
Monday, saying the government
has neither the company’s
expertise nor its deep-sea
equipment
Page 8A

SANFORD — Kiwanis
Children’s Parkplace is getting a facelift this July.
Lee County Parks and
Recreation Director John
Payne outlined a plan Monday for more than $27,000
in upgrades to the aging,
kid-friendly park off of Tryon
Street.
The improvements include
replacements for some of the
play areas, as well as pyramid-like umbrellas to provide
shade and musical equipment that allows children
to play with percussion and
tones.
“That’s our gateway into
town,” Payne said. “We want
it to look more fresh and
exciting.”
Payne explained the plan

“That’s our gateway into
town. We want it to look
more fresh and exciting...Children grew up
there playing on that
equipment and some of
them are old enough to
drive cars now”

— John Payne —
Director,
Lee County
Parks & Recreation

at a Lee County Parks and
Recreation Commission
meeting Monday.
He said installation of the
new equipment should start
in the second week of July.
Equipment at the children’s area, part of a larger
network of family parks in
Sanford, was installed in

1992, Payne said.
Parents were vocal of late
about urging upgrades for
Kiwanis.
“Their children grew up
there playing on that equipment and some of them are
old enough to drive cars
now,” Payne said.
Payne added that the
county will keep some of the
more popular play equipment that is in better shape,
and transport some of the
older items to Buchanan
Park on Cameron Drive in
southeast Sanford, which is
without a children’s play area.
The renovation work
should also include more
than $3,000 in repairs to the
tattered fencing surrounding
the Kiwanis park.
“We’re pretty excited about
it,” Payne said.

SPRING LAKE — Harnett
County investigators have
released a pair of harrowing 911
calls made from the site of an apparent murder-suicide north of
Spring Lake Saturday.
The calls were made by a Harnett County man and his friend
after the man found his parents
and his younger brother dead in
their home Saturday morning.
According to officials with
the Harnett County Sheriff’s
Office, 22-year-old Richard William David
ONLINE
Thompson
Hear a censhot his parents, 67-year- sored version
of the 911 call
old James
from the scene
Thompson
of an alleged
and 60-yearmurder-suicide
old Carolyn
by clicking on
Thompson,
this story at our
before turnwebsite.
ing the gun
sanfordherald.com
on himself.
All three
were reportedly dead by the time
they were found Saturday by
another son, 37-year-old James
Thompson Jr., and his friend,
Shannon Thompson, of no relation to the family, at a residence
located at 12665 N.C. 210 South.
According to the 911 calls,
James and Carolyn Thompson
were found in separate rooms
with gunshot wounds and Richard Thompson was found in a
bed with a gunshot wound to the
head and a single-barrel shotgun
in his hand.
“I can’t believe he turned
around and killed my ---- parents,” James Thompson Jr. can be

See 911, Page 6A

SOUTH CAROLINA
TEA PARTY CANDIDATE
FOR GOV. DENIES AFFAIR
Tea party favorite Nikki Haley,
a Republican candidate for
governor, vehemently denied allegations Monday that she had
an inappropriate relationship
with a political blogger several
years ago
Page 10A

STATE
STATE GOP NOT THRILLED
WITH TEA PARTY NOMINEE
Republican officials are taking
the rare step of trying to derail
the campaign of one of their
own candidates — a risky move
for party leaders trying to harness the power of the tea party
movement while not letting it
grow beyond their control
Page 7A

very year since 1963,
the president has proclaimed National Small
Business Week to recognize
the contributions of small
employers to the economic
well-being of our country.
Small businesses are major
contributors to the strength
of our economy. More than
half of Americans either own
or work for our nation’s 27.2
million small businesses.
As the creators of between
60 and 80 percent of new

HAPPENING TODAY
n Terry Stoops, director of
education studies for the
John Locke Foundation, will
speak at the Central Carolina Community College Science Building, Room 9106,
from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on “Why
spending more money is not
the answer.”
CALENDAR, PAGE 2A

jobs, small
employers drive
innovation
and increase
America’s
competitiveness.
Joyce
Successful
small businesses come in many different shapes and sizes. From a
one person shoe repair shop,
accounting firm or insurance
office to a multifaceted machine shop with engineers
and technicians. Doctors of-

See Business, Page 6A

ASHLEY GARNER/The Sanford Herald

Rain collects on a plant at Kiwanis Park in Sanford Monday. A
relatively dry spring has been relieved by storms over the past
three days. Rain is expected to remain in the forecast today and
returns to Lee County Friday and Saturday.

Corrections
The Herald is committed to accuracy and
factual reporting. To report an error or request a clarification, e-mail Editor Billy Liggett
at bliggett@sanfordherald.com or Community
Editor Jonathan Owens at owens@sanfordherald.com or call (919) 718-1226.

On the Agenda
Rundown of local meetings in the area:

TODAY
n The Sanford City Council will hold a budget workshop at 6:30 p.m. in the Council
Chambers at Sanford City Hall.
n The Lee County Board of Education’s Facilities and Technology Committee meeting
will be held at 2 p.m. at the Heins Education
Building.

WEDNESDAY
n The Sanford City Council will meet at 1
p.m. in the Council Chambers at the Municipal Center to consider a request to the legislature for a local bill to authorize to impose
an occupancy tax. The Law and Finance
Committee meeting will be held immediately
following the City Council meeting.

THURSDAY
n The Lee County Partnership for Children
will hold a Board of Directors Meeting from
noon to 2 p.m. at the N.C. Cooperative
Extension, located at 2420 Tramway Road.
n The Lee County Board of Education’s
Finance and Personnel Committee meeting
will be held at 4 p.m. at the Heins Education
Building.

Almanac
Today is Tuesday, May 25, the 145th day
of 2010. There are 220 days left in the
year.
This day in history:
On May 25th, 1810, Argentina began its
revolt against Spanish rule with the forming of the Primera Junta in Buenos Aires.
In 1787, the Constitutional Convention
began meeting in Philadelphia after enough
delegates had shown up for a quorum.
In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde was
convicted of a morals charge in London; he
was sentenced to two years in prison.
In 1916, the Chicago Tribune published
an interview with Henry Ford in which the
American industrialist was quoted as saying, “History is more or less bunk.”
In 1935, Babe Ruth hit the 714th and
final home run of his career, for the Boston
Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh
Pirates.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy, addressing Congress, called on the nation to
work toward putting a man on the moon by
the end of the decade.
In 1963, the Organization of African Unity
was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
(The OAU was disbanded in 2002 in favor
of the African Union.)
In 1968, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis
was dedicated by Vice President Hubert
Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart
Udall.
In 1979, 273 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff from
Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

Sudoku answer (puzzle on 5B)

Submitted photo

This month, 26 students from Jordan Matthews and Northwood high schools participated in the third all-day Science Festival
on the Rocky River. As in the previous two festivals, the event was held at Recompense on Pleasant Hill Church Road in the
western part of Chatham County. The purpose of the festival is to work with those who are presently high school students
and who will be adult leaders and responsible adult citizens within the next 10 years to acquaint them with the river that
is 90 percent within Chatham County — Chatham’s own Rocky River. The event is sponsored financially by the Rocky River
Heritage Foundation and in curriculum design and event planning by the Friends of the Rocky River.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR
ONGOING
n The Lee County American Red Cross will
hold a water skills for lifeguarding class in
May. Call (919) 774-6857 to register.
n Central Fire Station at 512 Hawkins Avenue will check car seats between 10 a.m.
and 4 p.m. each Saturday. Appointments
are required. Contact Krista at 775-8310 by
5 p.m. Wednesday to schedule an appointment for the following Saturday. Child must
be present for seat to be checked, unless
mother is expecting.
n Sanford Farmers Market will be held
from 9 a.m. to 12 noon every Saturday from
May through October.

TODAY
n Terry Stoops, director of education studies for the John Locke Foundation, will speak
at the Central Carolina Community College
Science Building, Room 9106, from 6:30 to
8 p.m. on “Why spending more money is not
the answer.”
n The Family and Consumer Sciences
Department, along the Family Career and
Community Leaders of America of Chatham
Central High School will present Senior
Showcase 2010 starting at 4 p.m. with a
silent auction and 6 with senior presentations. The senior awards ceremony will begin
at 6:30. The public is invited to participate,
and a $10 donation is requested. For more
information, contact Everett L. Goldston Jr.
at (919) 837-2251 or e-mail elgoldston@
chatham.k12.nc.us.
n The Lee County Genealogical and Historical Society will hold its regular monthly
meeting at 7 p.m. at the Lee County Library
auditorium, located at 107 Hawkins Ave. The

Blogs

If you have a calendar item you
would like to add or if you have a
feature story idea, contact The Herald
by e-mail at news@sanfordherald.com
or by phone at (919) 718-1225.
program on ‘Local Funeral Customs’, and
how these customs have evolved over the
years, will be presented by Tommy Prickett,
II who is the owner and operator of Fry and
Prickett Funeral Home in Carthage. For more
information, call 499-1909 or 499-7661.

THURSDAY
n The Northwood Concert Band, directed
by Eugene Cottrell, will present “Our Freedom,” the 11th annual concert for Memorial
Day at 7 p.m. in the Benjamin J. Lee Auditorium on the Northwood High School campus.
This year’s special guest is country/blues
artist Windy City Slim. Advance tickets are
$10 ahead of time and $15 at the door.
Order tickets online at www.SeatYourself.
biz/northwoodband or from band members
or band booster members. Cottrell is also
available at (919) 542-4181 to take ticket
orders.

Follow us on Facebook
Join The Herald’s Facebook
page for news updates and
local discussions

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The Herald’s editor, Billy
Liggett, gives a glowing review
of the “Lost” series finale
billyliggett.wordpress.com

n A Memorial Day service will be held at
11 a.m. at Veteran’s Park inside Carolina
Lakes Gated Community.
n Disabled American Veterans Chapter 5
will host a Memorial Day service beginning
at 11 a.m. at the N.C. Veterans Memorial
in Broadway.

JUNE 3
n The Grace Christian School graduation will be held at 7 p.m. at Grace Chapel
Church in Sanford.

JUNE 4
n The Lee Christian School graduation
will be held at 7 p.m. at the Dennis Wicker
Civic Center in Sanford.
n The Floyd Knight School graduation will
be held at 7 p.m. at Floyd Knight School in
Sanford.
n First Friday Cafe 121 from 5 until 8:30
p.m., with part of the proceeds from your
meal to benefit the Coalition For Families
in Lee County to support programs for children and families. Musical entertainment
on the terrace by the Tuesday Night Music
Club. Reservations encouraged. Phone
Cafe 121 at 774-1888.

Lottery

n To get your child’s school
news, your civic club reports or
anything you’d like to see on our
Meeting Agenda or Community
Calendar, e-mail Community Editor
Jonathan Owens at owens@sanfordherald.com or call him at (919)
718-1225.

n To share a story idea or
concern or to submit a letter to the
editor, call Editor Billy Liggett at
(919) 718-1226 or e-mail him at
bliggett@sanfordherald.com

HOME DELIVERY

ABOUT US

products from 9 a.m. to noon at Deport
Park in downtown Sanford as part of the
weekly Sanford Farmer’s Market. To get
involved or to learn more, e-mail David
Montgomery at david.montgomery@sanfordnc.net.

o Customer Service
Do you have a late, missed or wet paper?
Call (919) 708-9000 between 7 and 10
a.m. After hours, call your carrier or 7089000 and leave a message.

Local

The Sanford Herald / Tuesday, May 25, 2010 / 3A

HARNETT COUNTY

Lillington DMV
office to close
temporarily

RALEIGH â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The North
Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles announced
Monday that the Lillington
license plate agency has
not renewed its contract
to continue operating at
its location on Main Street
and will close at the end of
business on Friday.
A new agency contractor
is being selected by N.C.
DMV and is scheduled to
open in the near future.
License plate agencies
offer vehicle registration
services and title transactions, as well as vehicle
license plate renewals,
replacement tags and duplicate registrations.
Lillington customers are
urged to visit DMV offices
in Angier, Dunn or Sanford
until a new agency contractor is selected.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from staff reports

HARNETT COUNTY

Cash 5 ticket nets
$218K for retired
Lillington woman

RALEIGH â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Paying off the
mortgage is at the top of
the list for a retiree from
Lillington who claimed her
$217,987 prize at lottery
headquarters in Raleigh.
Vivian Morrisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Carolina Cash 5â&#x20AC;? ticket matched
all five numbers in the May
19 drawing to win the top
prize.
Morrison let the computer
quick pick two â&#x20AC;&#x153;Carolina
Cash 5â&#x20AC;? tickets and gave
them to her adult daughter
so she could check the winning numbers online. She
said she was overwhelmed
when her daughter told her
â&#x20AC;&#x153;We won.â&#x20AC;?
Morrisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winnings,
which totaled $148,136
after taxes, will also pay
for her grandsons to go to
summer camp. She purchased her winning ticket
at Cape Fear Beverage and
Variety Mart on West Old
Road in Lillington.
Two additional â&#x20AC;&#x153;Carolina
Cash 5â&#x20AC;? tickets have been
lucky in recent days after

EVE CARSON

SUMMER INTERNSHIP

AROUND OUR AREA

Accused
killer
pleads
guilty

each matched all five numbers in separate drawings.
A ticket sold at the Kangaroo Express on Bunce
Road in Fayetteville won the
top prize of $50,000 on
Thursday.
The other top prize-winning ticket, worth $63,640
in the Saturday, May 22
drawing, was sold at
Scotchman #120 on Main
Street in Shallotte.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from staff reports

CHATHAM COUNTY

Tax hike would
fund schools
PITTSBORO (MCT) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The
Chatham County manager has proposed a nearly
$84.6 million budget that
raises the tax rate 4.15
percent, almost all of it to
fund schools.
Under Manager Charlie
Horneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget, which the
county commissioners will
vote on in June, the county
tax rate would rise 2.5
cents to 62.72 cents per
$100 of assessed property value. The owner of a
house valued at $200,000
would pay $1,254.40 in
county taxes.
The budget increases
school funding 6 percent,
according to county officials.
The funding needed to
open Margaret B. Pollard
Middle School and cover
other increases in school
spending is almost 2 cents
of the proposed 2.5-cent
tax increase, Horne said.
Besides the new middle
school, other facilities
opening in 2010-11 will
include the Chatham Community Library at Central
Carolina Community College in Pittsboro, a CCCC
classroom building in Siler
City, a CCCC classroom
building in Pittsboro, as
well as Northeast Park,
Northwest Park and the
park at Briar Chapel.
Chatham residents may
comment on the proposed
budget at two public hearings:
n 6 p.m. June 1, Central
Carolina Community College multipurpose room,
Pittsboro
n 6 p.m., June 2, Siler
City courtroom

Ricky Hurtado, Lee County High School Class of 2007 and a current student at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is one week away from a formal initiation
into the world of social change. Recently accepted into the Hilliard P. Jenkins Undergraduate Fellowship Program, Hurtado will join five other select students in a summer
internship program with Frontline Solutions, a community of social change leaders.
Designed for aspiring professionals with a passion for the fields of social justice and
entrepreneurship, the program is a venue to aid and learn from Frontlineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work of
supporting foundations and nonprofits and the communities in which they serve.

HILLSBOROUGH (AP)
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A man accused in the
shooting death of a University of North Carolina
student body president
pleaded guilty Monday to
murder and other state
charges, avoiding a trial
and the possibility of a
death sentence.
Demario Atwater of
Durham pleaded guilty at
a hearing in Hillsborough
to first-degree murder,
armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges in
the death of Eve Carson.
In a plea agreement with
prosecutors, Atwater
agreed to life in prison
without parole on the
murder charge.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Although the punishment is very severe, we
are grateful that it was
a punishment that will
allow him to live,â&#x20AC;? said
Jonathan Broun, one of
Atwaterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attorneys.
Atwater had already
pleaded guilty in April to
several federal charges,
including carjacking
resulting in death and
kidnapping. He is to be
sentenced in federal
court Sept. 23. His agreement with prosecutors is
for a life sentence.
Carson was found
shot to death in a Chapel
Hill neighborhood in
March 2008, nearly a mile
from campus. Carsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
parents and brother
attended the hearing
and issued a statement
through Raleigh attorney
Wade Smith.

hen there’s trouble,
more often than not,
we tend to call in
law enforcement and let them
handle the situation. That’s
the right thing to do. After
all, they are the ones with the
expertise.
Does that mean that we
should not get involved?
Thanks to the efforts of a
14-year-old girl, a Sanford
man was arrested and charged
in connection with a breakin. As the man reportedly was
leaving the scene, the girl
had the foresight to take a
picture with her cell phone as
he drove away, according to
investigators. That led to the

arrest.
Thanks to the efforts of
two Pittsboro men, a possible kidnapping was stopped
in Chapel Hill. As they saw
a man grab an 18-year-old
woman, they blocked the exit
to the parking lot and the girl
was let go — not before one of
the Pittsboro men was injured
during the event. A man has
been arrested and charged in
connection with the incident.
This Sanford girl and these
Pittsboro men didn’t have to
do what they did, but their
work was crucial in helping
law enforcement make arrests
in both cases.
As good as law enforce-

ment may be, they cannot be
expected to be the sole source
of protection. Sometimes we
must offer our assistance in
doing what is right.
That’s not to say that everything always works out for the
best. In the New York area last
month, it was reported by the
New York Post that a homeless
man saved a woman from a
knife attack and was himself
stabbed. Unfortunately, it
was more than an hour before
someone came to his rescue
and he died. Here was a hero,
a man who gave his own life to
help protect another, yet there
were those who passed by and
saw his body — but did noth-

ing to help.
Have we become so indifferent that we’ll stand around
and watch someone linger
toward death without taking
action?
One might say that this
person would still be alive
if they’d only minded themselves and not interfere with
the attacker. Perhaps.
But is that the kind of world
we’ve become? Is it the kind
of world in which we want to
live?
We might not save the
world from those intent on
destroying it. Or even hurting
another individual. On the
other hand, we might save

harm to someone else with
our vigilance.
Dare we put ourselves at
risk with our vigilance?
Let’s face it. We no longer
live in an era where we can
leave our doors and windows
open. Danger may lurk around
the next corner. Yet, we cannot
live in a state of fear.
We need to live like the
Sanford teen and the two
Pittsboro men, as their bravery should be an inspiration
for all of us.
We should be thankful for
those people whose courage in times of trouble help
to solve crimes and perhaps
keep others from harm’s way.

Letters to the Editor
Athletics are important
part of school experience

Scott Mooneyham
Today in North Carolina
Scott Mooneyham is a columnist
with Capitol Press Association

The right
and wrong

M

aybe the Republicans are
right. Politically, they’re
wrong.
When the state Senate last week
voted on its $19 billion state budget
plan, just three Republicans joined with
the Democratic majority to vote for the
bill.
The Senate’s Republican leadership
argued that the budget bill was financially irresponsible. They predicted
that it would set the stage for tougher
decisions, more hardship, and more tax
hikes next year.
It’s hard to argue with the prediction.
The state is counting on another $1.5.
billion boost in federal stimulus money
for the upcoming budget year. After
that, the federal help is likely to begin
running dry.
A one-penny increase in the state
sales tax is also scheduled to expire next
year. That would be another $800 million hit to the bottom line.
“This budget fails to position the
state of North Carolina to address the
$3 billion shortfall that is coming next
year,” said Senate Minority Leader Phil
Berger, a Rockingham County Republican.
OK. But no one voted on that 201112 fiscal year budget this week. They
voted on the 2010-11 state budget.
And that budget cuts taxes. It doesn’t
increase spending. It eliminates some
programs that have been criticized for
being wasteful.
In other words, it does most of the
things that Republicans typically say
that they want from state budgeting.
And they still voted against it.
In fact, they even argued against a
Democratic proposal to cut small business taxes by $40 million, to ensure that
those small business pay no more than
the 6.9 percent corporate tax rate. ...
Essentially, what Senate Republicans
did this week was vote against the following year’s budget this year.
But their arguments about next year
won’t matter this fall. They’ve delivered
a political victory to Democrats desperately in need of any advantage that they
can find.
Now, those Republicans can look
forward to seeing mailers sent to voters
stating how they opposed Senate Bill
897, a bill to cut small business taxes. ...
State government in North Carolina,
as Berger has repeatedly pointed out,
faces serious, long-term and structural
financial problems.
That legislators in either party are
ready to address those problems, particularly this year, seems unlikely.
Easing budgetary pressures over the
long haul involve really hard decisions
— things like structural changes to
Medicaid, redefining state employee
health and retirement benefits, rethinking the need for 16 public universities
in this state, modernizing the state tax
code.
Those are the kinds of decisions that
would make a lot of different groups of
people plenty mad.
Interestingly enough, elected officials — Republicans and Democrats
— don’t like making people mad.

The GOP’s overreach

A

specter is haunting the Republican
Party — though thankfully it is no longer the recently defeated Arlen Specter,
who managed to be equally troublesome as
both ally and foe. It is the specter of ideological overreach.
Some will immediately protest that President Obama and congressional leaders are
the ones who are guilty of overreach. Which
is also true. Tuesday was the latest in a series
of elections that have punished not just
incumbents but incumbents associated with
the expansion of government. Even Democrat Mark Critz, the winner of last week’s
House special election in Pennsylvania, campaigned in opposition to health care reform.
That reform, judged purely as politics, will
be remembered as a colossal strategic error.
The bank and auto bailouts were unpopular
but unavoidable. Health care reform was a
challenge that Obama chased. Coming soon
after a large Keynesian stimulus package, the
creation of a new health entitlement ignited
a national debate on the role of government,
confirmed an image of Democratic profligacy
and polarized the electorate — all of which
led to a backlash. If anyone can be considered the instigator of the tea party movement, it is Barack Obama.
Most of this reaction can be best described as Americans standing athwart the
Democratic Congress, yelling Stop — generally a useful enterprise. The problem comes
when activists attempt to translate this
tendency into a political philosophy.
The tea party movement, being resistant
to systemization, is resistant to characterization. But in its simplest form (and there
seems to be no other form), it might be called
“constitutional conservatism.” It adopts a
rigorous hermeneutic: If the Constitution
does not specifically mention it, the federal government isn’t allowed to do it. This
represents a kind of 10th Amendment fundamentalism — a muscular form of states’
rights that would undo much of the federal
role since Franklin Roosevelt, perhaps since
Abraham Lincoln.
This philosophy has the virtue of being
easily explainable — and the drawback of
being impossible. The current federal role
did not grow primarily because of the statist
ambitions of liberals; it grew in response to
democratic choices and global challenges.
Federal power advanced to rescue the elderly
from penury, to enforce civil rights laws, to
establish a stable regulatory framework for a
modern economy, to conduct a global Cold
War. The “establishment” that advanced and
maintained this federal role included Harry
Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald
Reagan. In many areas, the federal government has gone too far, becoming bloated and
burdensome. But the federal role cannot be
abandoned.
There is an even smaller subset of the tea
party movement comprised of libertarian
conservatives, representing a more developed intellectual tradition. Their goal is not

Michael Gerson
Columnist
Michael Gerson is a columnist with the
Washington Post Writers Group

just federalism but a minimal state at home
and abroad. Their commitment to individual
freedom — defined as the absence of external constraint — is nearly absolute. Taxation
for the purpose of redistribution is theft.
The national security state does not defend liberty; it threatens it. American global
commitments are just another form of big
government.
The closest this sect has come to serious
political influence is Rand Paul’s victory in
Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary this
week. Paul has attempted to become more
electable by distancing himself from the
worst libertarian excesses. But there can be
no doubt about Paul’s political orientation.
In an interview the day after his primary victory, Paul could not bring himself to endorse
the Americans with Disabilities Act or the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. “I think there’s a
lot to be desired in the Civil Rights — and
indeed the truth is,” he sputtered, “I haven’t
read all through it, because it was passed
40 years ago and hadn’t been a real pressing
issue on the campaign on whether I’m going
to vote for the Civil Rights Act.” Earlier in his
campaign, however, Paul explained his view
that businesses should not be forced by government to adopt anti-discrimination rules.
Because he is a libertarian, Paul is unable to
embrace some of the largest moral achievements of recent American history.
Paul and other libertarians are not merely
advocates of limited government; they are
anti-government. Their objective is not the
correction of error but the cultivation of contempt for government itself. There is a reason
libertarianism has never been — and likely
will never be — a national political force:
because too many would find its utopia a
nightmare.
Overreach is breeding overreach. The pendulum swings wider and wider.

Today’s Prayer
Lord, make me to know my end, and
what is the measure of my days. (Psalm
39:4)
PRAYER: Help us, Father, to use our time
wisely, so we may bring glory to Your name.
Amen.

To the Editor:
With regard to the recent
letter in The Herald, “One
option to cut school budgets:
cancel high school athletics,” I
find it a bit naive.
It would be easy to assume
that the letter writer never
played school sports. That may
or may not be correct. Those
that made the teams know
what it is like to compete with
teammates and for a common
goal. They learn a lot about
life and make lifelong connections. Many of these cross
social, racial and economic
lines.
Those who do not make
the teams can do one of two
things; give up or try harder.
This is a valuable life lesson as
well. For certain, not making
a school team is not the only
time in life that adversity will
come into their lives.
Most students will never
compete in school athletics.
Certainly, they know others
who do and may decide to
support them during games
and such. Again, this is a positive social outlet for friends
and families. Sharing a great
moment can be a valuable life
experience as well.
There are many who could
care less about the athletic
program at their school. Too
bad; they are missing great
chances to participate in life
in many different forms. There
are those who are forever
disappointed for not making
the team, but if they do not try
again, they have failed twice.
Please do not think that I
feel that school sports are the
best thing about school. I do
feel they are a positive for the
school and the community.
With so many negatives grabbing the headlines, why would
you suggest eliminating one
that works very well to enhance a community?
I am not certain what the
overall expenditures are for
athletics in Lee County. I am
not sure how it compares with
the AIG expenditures that are
getting deserved scrutiny. I am
sure that cutting programs that
work brings everyone down.
The return on the expense
cannot be measured.
The letter writer certainly
has not been near a gym, stadium, or field on game night
in Lee County lately. These are
the places to be.
MIKE NEAL
Sanford

Letters Policy
n Each letter must contain
the writer’s full name, address
and phone number for verification. Letters must be signed.
n Anonymous letters and
those signed with fictitious
names will not be printed.
n We ask writers to limit
their letters to 350 words, unless in a response to another
letter, column or editorial.
n Mail letters to: Editor, The
Sanford Herald, P.O. Box 100,
Sanford, N.C. 27331, or drop
letters at The Herald office, 208
St. Clair Court. Send e-mail to:
bliggett@sanfordherald.com.
Include phone number for
verification.

Local

The Sanford Herald / Tuesday, May 25, 2010 / 5A

OBITUARIES
Anne Morgan

SANFORD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Anne
Long Morgan, former
dance instructor in
Sanford, died Friday
(5/21/10).
She was born Feb.
27, 1915, daughter of
Margaret and Ed Long of
Spartanburg, S.C. She was
preceded in death by J.E.
(Dack) Morgan Sr.
She is survived by
J.E. (Rusty) Morgan Jr.;
a sister, Millie Skleris of
Tennessee; and three
grandchildren.
A graveside service will
be held at 11 a.m. today at
Buffalo Cemetery.
Condolences may be
made at www.millerboles.
com.
Arrangments are by
Miller-Boles Funeral
Home of Sanford.

Theodore McLeod

VASS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Funeral service
for Theodore McLeod,
93, of 164 McKeithan
Road, who died Tuesday
(5/18/10), was conducted
Friday at Fryes Chapel
Freewill Baptist Church
with Elder Kent McMillian
officiating. Burial followed
in the church cemetery.
Soloist was Deacon
Melvin Turner.
Pallbearers were his
nephews and St. Luke
Lodge #136.
Arrangements were by
Knotts Funeral Home of
Sanford.

Leonard Thomas

Mary Elizabeth Vandermark

SANFORD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mr. Leonard Cameron Thomas,
78, of Sanford, died Sunday, May 23, 2010, at his
home.
Mr. Thomas was born in Lee County on June
10, 1931, to the late Bailey Thomas Sr. and Gertrude Webster Thomas. In addition to his parents,
he was preceded in death by his grandchildren,
Corey, Chelsey and Colin Thomas; step grandson,
J. D. Moore; brothers, Bailey Thomas Jr. and Lee P.
Thomas; and a sister, Alice T. Cameron.
Mr. Thomas served in the United States Air
Force. He was a member of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church where he served as a former Deacon,
Trustee, and Secretary of Sunday School. He
received a lifetime membership
award at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and was the caretaker of the church cemetery. He
was a construction foreman for
his family concrete business and
also a farmer.
He is survived by his wife, Frances Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Quinn
Thomas; sons, Charlie Thomas and wife Linda and
Mike Thomas and wife Teresa; and a brother, J.W.
Thomas and wife June, all of Sanford. He is also
survived by grandchildren, Jennifer, Jeremy, Austin
and Haley Thomas, step grandchild, Dustin Moore
and wife Shanna and step great-grandchildren,
Kailey, Connor and Ethan Moore.
The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m.
today, May 25, 2010, at the St. Andrews Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. The funeral will be
Wednesday, May 26th, at 4 p.m. at St. Andrews
Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Danny Redman
presiding. Burial will follow in the church cemetery with military rites.
Condolences may be made at www.bridgescameronfuneralhome.com.
Arrangements are by Bridges Cameron Funeral
Home, Inc. of Sanford.

SANFORD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mary Elizabeth Vandermark, age 42, of Sanford, passed
away on Saturday, May 22, 2010, at
Central Carolina Hospital in Sanford.
She was born April 30, 1968 in
Morristown, N.J., to John Robert
Smith and Ruth Roon Fanion. The
family grew up in Sussex County N.J.
and Mary attended Newton High
School. Before moving to N.C. three
years ago, she was an office manager
for Skylands Medical in Newton, N.J.
Mary was currently employed as the
office manager for First Choice Health
Center in Belhaven.
She us survived by her husband
of 10 years, Elijah Vandermark of
Sanford; her son, Elijah Richard
Vandermark, who is 9 years old. Mary
lived for her son Elijah, they were best
friends and inseparable. This year
she was team mother for his baseball
team. Pray that God will keep Elijah
in His care. She is also survived by her
parents, John Robert Smith and Ruth
Roon Fanion of Sanford; her twin

Paid obituary

Berryman. Soloist was
Minister Deon Allbrooks.
Pallbearers were nephews, cousins and friends.
Arrangements were by
Knotts Funeral Home of
Sanford.

Gilbert Barnum Sr.

LAKELAND, Fla.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Funeral service for
Gilbert L. Barnum Sr., 65,
of 601 E. Ponderosa Drive,
who died Wednesday
(5/12/10), was conducted
Saturday at Cameron
Grove AME Zion Church
in Broadway with the Rev.
Chalmers McDougald officiating. Eulogist was the
Rev. Ridie Headen. Burial
followed at Lee Memory
Gardens in Sanford.
Musician was Freddie

Robert Pegram Jr.
CAMERON â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Retired
USAF TSgt. Robert Irvin
Pegram Jr., 74, died Saturday (5/22/10) at Womack
Army Medical Center. He
was an auctioneer.
He is survived by his
wife, Mary Ellen Pegram
of the home; a son, Randy
I. Pegram of Angier and
a daughter-in-law, Ada
Pegram of Angier.
The family will receive

friends from 7 to 9 p.m.
today at the funeral home.
The funeral service will
be conducted at 11 a.m.
Wednesday at Countryside Presbyterian Church
with
the Rev.
Dave
Kinney
officiating.
Burial
will follow at Riverview
Memorial Gardens with
military honors.
Arrangements are by
Adcock Funeral Home
and Crematory of Spring
Lake.

LILLINGTON â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Laura Babb
Leaird, 69, of Lillington, passed to
her heavenly home on Saturday, May
22, 2010, at her residence after a 7
year, hard fought battle with breast
cancer.
She was born in Broadway on October 20, 1940, to the late Omer Lee
Babb and Berla Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Quinn Babb. She
was a dedicated
25-year employee of
the Harnett County
School System, employed as a Secretary
and Librarian at
Boone Trail Elementary School. Prior
to this, she served
Leaird
as a Loan Officer at
Southern National
Bank in Lillington. Laura was a
member of Antioch Baptist Church
in Mamers. She enjoyed gardening
her beautiful roses, giving back to
the community, spending time with
her family and traveling to the Sweet
Potato Conventions and visiting her
daughter, Kim. Laura was the happiest when she made other people
happy. She loved the Lord and her
faith sustained her throughout her
illness. She was preceded in death by
a brother, Clinton Babb.
She is survived by her husband,

brother, Gerald Edward Smith and his
wife Julia of Sanford; brother, Marinus
John Smith and his wife Jeanna of
Slagle, La.; niece, Emily Rose Smith,
and nephew Gerald Edward Smith,
who she loved dearly and were such
a big part of her life; and many aunts,
uncles and cousins originally from
New Jersey whom she was always
there for.
All who knew her loved her joy of
life, laughter, sense of humor and
loyalty as a friend. She will be missed
by so many people that will cherish
her memories.
A graveside funeral service will be
held on Thursday, May 27, 2010, at 11
a.m. at Buffalo Cemetery in Sanford
with the Rev. Sandy Williams officiating. The family will receive friends on
Wednesday, May 26, 2010, from 2 to
4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Miller-Boles
Funeral Home in Sanford.
Online condolences may be made
at www.millerboles.com.
Miller-Boles Funeral Home of Sanford is serving the family.
Paid obituary

Van Leaird of the home; a daughter, Kim Leaird of Greenville, S.C.;
brothers, Charles Babb and wife
Sylvia of Lillington and Junior Babb
of Greensboro; sisters, Louise Bullard of Greensboro, Genease Fields
and husband Phillip of Tramway and
Ellen Allen and husband Halford
of Cameron; a sister-in-law, Janet
Babb of Broadway; and 12 nieces and
nephews that she loved very much.
The funeral service will be conducted at 4 p.m. today at Antioch
Baptist Church in Mamers with the
Rev. Martin Groover, the Rev. Terry
Williams and the Rev. Ronald Byrd
officiating. Burial will follow in the
church cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family
requests memorials to be made in
memory of Laura Leaird to either
the John T. Ennis Foundation, 3350
Riverwood Pkwy., Suite 1400, Atlanta,
Ga. 30339. (This Foundation made it
possible for Kim to take an extended
time from work to care for her
mother) or donations may be made
to Liberty Community Home Care
and Hospice, 809 Wicker St., Sanford,
N.C. 27330.
Online condolences at www.
oquinnpeebles.com.
Funeral arrangements entrusted
to Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Quinn-Peebles Funeral Home.
Paid obituary

For more information on obituaries in The Herald,
contact Kim Edwards at (919) 718-1224
or e-mail obits@sanfordherald.com

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SANFORD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mary Gwendolyn â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gwenâ&#x20AC;? Howard
McIver died peacefully at the Hock Pavilion in
Durham early Sunday, May 23, 2010. Gwenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense
of humor, dignity, resolve and faith were gifts of
immeasurable value to all who were with her during her illness.
Born on January 17, 1926 in Sanford, she was the
youngest of five children born to Richard Thomas
and Helen Paschal Howard. She graduated from Sanford High School at sixteen, attended Greensboro
College, Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.,
and graduated from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill with a degree in music.
Gwen was an accomplished pianist and organist. She taught piano at her home for sixty years
and was organist at the First
Presbyterian Church in Sanford
for forty one years. She played for
numerous weddings and funerals,
and was active in the local music
and arts community. Prior to the
onset of her illness, she remained
active as a piano teacher and had
planned her end-of-year recital
McIver
for the first week in June. Music
and interest in others was her passion. She was happiest when teaching and get-ting
to know her students.
Gwen was often allied with the downtrodden,
and steadfast in her sense of honor and integrity.
She was awarded Volunteer of the Year for her
commitment to inmates at the Sanford Advancement Center through the Yoke Fellow Program.
She felt exceptionally blessed and therefore accountable for the welfare of others.
Gwen was predeceased by her parents, her
husband William â&#x20AC;&#x153;Billâ&#x20AC;? Dunlap McIver, sister
Helen Howard Parker and brothers Wilson Howard
and Robert Howard, and family friend Beatrice
Cameron.
She is survived by her children, John McMillan
McIver and his wife Wendy Excell McIver and their
children Meredith, Caroline and Jack; Beth McIver
Wickham and her husband Leslie Oliver Wickham
and their sons Leslie III and Patrick; Marshall
McIver and her husband Greg Murray and their
daughters Kate and Allison Murray, and Robert
Howard McIver and his wife Joy Gragg McIver and
their son Gantt. She is also survived by her brother
Leland Paschal â&#x20AC;&#x153;Patâ&#x20AC;? Howard and his wife Averill,
sisters-in-law Nancy McIver Griffin and Lois McIver Winstead, and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Sanford on Wednesday, May 26, at
11 a.m. followed by visitation with the family in
the churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Harper Center. Interment will be held
at Gulf Presbyterian Church at 2 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, please send memorial contributions to First Presbyterian Church, 212 Hawkins
Ave., Sanford, N.C. 27330, or Duke Hospice, 4321
Medical Park Drive, Durham, N.C. 27704.

STATESVILLE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mr. John Todd
McCulloch, known as Todd, 48,
of 148 Moonagerie Lane, Stony
Point, died Sunday, May 23rd, at
Iredell Memorial Hospital unexpectedly.
Born July 2, 1961 in Lee County, he was a son of
the late Raymond Everette
McCulloch and
Marjorie Kirkman
McCulloch. Todd
was a graduate of
Eastern Carolina
University and
McCulloch
was a partner in
Pharmaceutical Calibrations and Consulting
Inc. (PCI). He was a member of
New Sterling A.R.P. Church where
he served as a Deacon, President
of his Sunday School Class and
participated in the Praise and
Worship Team. He was an avid

Paid obituary

Business
Continued from Page 1A

fices, recreational vehicle
rental, auto repairs shops
and real estate offices
â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we are a nation of small
businesses. Lee Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
2010 Small Business of
the Year, Chatlee Boat
and Marine, has about
40 employees and a
national reputation. The
Yow family is active in
our community, supporting local non-profits and youth sports
teams. Practicing good
corporate citizenship is
second nature to most
small business people
because working for your
community is good for
business. Why are they
so successful?
North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Small
Business of the Year for
2010 is Beatrice Hair,
founder of Salisbury
Tutoring Academy, Ltd., a
one-on-one, after school
tutoring business. A visit
to her website immedi-

golfer, played guitar and enjoyed
watching ECU football. On March
8, 2003, he married the former
Scotti Jenkins who survives.
Also surviving are a son, Jacob
McCulloch of Charlotte; two step
children, Dylan and Garrett Deal,
both of the home; a brother,
Raymond McCulloch of Raleigh;
and his Father and Mother-InLaw, Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Jenkins of
Stony Point.
Services celebrating Toddâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
life will be conducted at 11 a.m.
Wednesday at New Sterling A.R.P.
Church with the Rev. Tim Watson
officiating. He will lie in state at
the church for one hour prior to
the service and burial will follow
in the church cemetery. Active
pallbearers will be Kent Clarke,
Frank Emory, Adrian Jarrett, Andy
Mayhew, Jeff McNeely, Craig
Pugh and Harvey Reese. Honorary pallbearers will be Elders and
Deacons of New Sterling A.R.P.

Church. The family will receive
friends immediately following the
service in the church fellowship
hall and other times they will be
assembled at the residence of Mr.
and Mrs. Lynn Jenkins, 2915 Old
Mountin Road, Stony Point.
Condolences may be sent online to the family at www.bunchjohnsonfuneralhome.com.
Memorials may be given to the
New Sterling A.R.P. Church, 580
New Sterling Road, Stony Point,
N.C. 28678 or to The American Heart Association through
a link for Todd at the following web address, http://honor.
americanheart.org/site/TR/
Events/General? pxfid=144852&fr
id=1030&pg=fund or by mail to
American Heart Association 4217
Park Place Court, Glen Allen, Va.
23060
Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home
is entrusted with the arrangements.
Paid obituary

ately impresses you with
testimonials and specific
information about results
for her students. Are results driving her success?
Every week in the
United States, nearly
12,000 people start a
business. Seven out of
ten new firms make it
at least two years, and
about half survive five
years. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a risk but
the payoff is huge: the
satisfaction of building
something from scratch,
the joy of providing jobs
and trying an idea, the
thrill of making money
on your own. These are
the feelings business
owners describe when
asked why they started
their business. But,
according to research,
the single characteristic
common to successful
small business owners is:
focus â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the ability to zero

in on a problem, analyze
it, make a decision and
move on to the next opportunity.
While our economy is
still recovering, opening a business might not
seem like a good idea.
But according to an article by Rhonda Abrams,
president of The Planning
Shop, publisher of books
for entrepreneurs, now is
a great to start a business. In fact, 16 of the 30
companies that make up
the Dow industrial average were started during a
recession or depression
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; companies like Procter
& Gamble, Disney, Alcoa,
McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, General
Electric and Johnson &
Johnson.
Abrams reminds us
that during the mid-seventies, at a time when
the United States was at
the end of an extremely

costly war that had
divided the country, gas
prices jumped by nearly
50 percent in two years
and consumer confidence dropped to an
all-time low. A terrible
time to start a business,
right? Here are just a few
of the companies started
in those awful years of
the early 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s: Supercuts, Chiliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Cablevision,
Industrial Light & Magic,
Famous Amos cookies,
Oakley and, oh, yes, a
small company called
Microsoft.
The Chamber constantly trumpets Lee
County as a great place
to live and work â&#x20AC;Ś and
start a business. If you
think you have what it
takes, there are plenty of
resources here to help
you get started. Good
luck and Happy Small
Business Week!

911

Monday afternoon.
911 operators received
calls at approximately the
same time Saturday morning from James Thompson
Jr. and his friend Shannon
Thompson.
Both were making a
stop at the residence when
the bodies were found.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was sitting in the car
for a minute and then next
thing you know James
comes out and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s telling
me that Richard killed his
family,â&#x20AC;? Shannon Thompson tells the 911 operator.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen anything
like that.â&#x20AC;?
Shannon Thompson
said Richard Thompson
had a history of drug problems.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;His brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always
been kind of crazy to me,â&#x20AC;?
she told the operator. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh
my God, I never thought
heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d do anything like this
though.â&#x20AC;?
Throughout the calls,
which were made at approximately the same time
Saturday morning, the
sounds of shouting and
barking dogs can be heard
in the background.
Shannon Thompson

told the operator she
believed the killings happened Friday night based
on the state of the bodies.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no doubt about
it, (Richard Thompsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s)
dead,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;His feet
are purple. His brains literally are all on the bed.â&#x20AC;?
At one point during his
call, James Thompson Jr.
calms down enough to
describe the bloody scene
to the 911 operator and
check his mother for signs
of breathing.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m getting a little bit
calmer because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m used to
seeing stuff like this on TV,â&#x20AC;?
he tells the operator.
The tape also captures
a rattled Shannon Thompson as she describes the
same scene to another
operator.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe this,â&#x20AC;? she
says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen anything so evil in my life.â&#x20AC;?
McNeill said the
investigation is ongoing, adding that Harnett
County deputies had
been called to the residence before.
McNeill declined Monday to say the reasons for
the previous calls.

Continued from Page 1A

heard telling a 911 operator
on the phone call.
On the call, an irate
James Thompson Jr. says
his brother had been
diagnosed with â&#x20AC;&#x153;homicidal,
suicidalâ&#x20AC;? tendencies and
had made a recent posting to a MySpace Internet
networking page saying
â&#x20AC;&#x153;haters gonna get it.â&#x20AC;?
Major Gary McNeill
with the Harnett County
Sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office said Richard
Thompson was living in
the residence with his
parents.
No motive for the
slayings was released by

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RALEIGH (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gov.
Beverly Perdue said the
creation of a new dedicated
fund to build urgent road and
other transporation projects in
North Carolina is necessary to
keep the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic engines roaring in the decades
ahead.
Perdue, several mayors
and Board of Transportation
members attended a news
conference on Monday to urge
the Legislature to approve the
North Carolina Mobility Fund
that Perdue proposed in her
budget last month.
The effort would raise money in part from higher fees
and more car sales taxes to
ease congestion with projects
of statewide significance hard
to fund under the current
road-funding formula.
The Senate didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put the
idea in the budget bill it approved last week but Perdue
was hopeful it would be
considered during this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
session.

Jury deliberations
on hold in 1972
murder trial
JACKSONVILLE (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The
trial of a 57-year-old former
small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine 37
years ago in North Carolina is
on hold.
The Daily News of Jacksonville reported Monday that a
juror was in the hospital. The
jury had been in deliberations
since Friday.
Superior Court Judge Ken
Crow postponed the trial until
Tuesday morning to determine
how long the juror would be
away.
Hayden faces murder and
conspiracy charges for what
prosecutors say was an
ambush triggered by a love
triangle involving Millerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
wife. Crow dismissed the
conspiracy charge last week
after he ruled the state lacked
evidence.
The case remained unsolved
until Millerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sister contacted
a newspaper reporter looking
into cold cases. The resulting investigation found new
information.

Education
officials decry
state spending cuts

RALEIGH (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Spokesmen representing North
Carolina teachers, school
boards and the PTA are urging
legislators to spare schools
from major spending cuts this
year.
They reacted on Monday
to the $19 billion budget the
state Senate approved last
week and the House began
considering Monday. House
leaders are planning $360
million in education cuts,
about twice as deep as the
Senateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan.
State schools superintendent June Atkinson says
schools should come before
filling potholes or other government priorities.
North Carolina Association
of Educators president Sheri
Strickland says school layoffs
mean teachers remaining
on the job canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give children
the best education possible.

Bald eagle born
in captivity may
be a mom
HUNTERSVILLE (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A
bald eagle born at the Carolina Raptor Center in North
Carolina has been spotted in
Alabama.
The Charlotte Observer reports Lola might be a mother.
She and her brother Len
were born in captivity at
the center in Huntersville in
2006. The young eagles were
fitted with small transmitters
and released. They were monitored for a couple of years,
but then no one kept up with
them.
A University of North Carolina Charlotte ornithologist
released another eagle this
month and looked up Len and
Lola, now 4 years old.

SANDHILLS ORTHODONTICS

RALEIGH â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Republican officials are taking
the rare step of trying to
derail the campaign of
one of their own candidates â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a risky move
for party leaders trying
to harness the power of
the tea party movement
while not letting it grow
beyond their control.
Tim Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio, a
congressional candidate
in North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most
competitive district, has
run an anti-establishment campaign with
vows to dismantle entire
branches of federal government. His ideas have
drawn support from tea
party activists, and he has
raised more money from
individuals than his GOP
rival while also contributing more than $1 million
to his own campaign.
Republican leaders in both Raleigh and
Washington, however, are
worried about his candidacy as he heads into a
primary runoff, exposing
tensions between the
partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core and the tea
party movement on its
outskirts. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re publi-

cizing court documents
about Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
past legal, martial and
business troubles and
denouncing him as unfit
for office.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mr. Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio
has disqualified himself
by his background, his
record and his behavior,â&#x20AC;?
said Tom Fetzer, North
Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Republican
Party chairman. He said
the GOP embraces the tea
party but doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe
a person with such a
checkered past should be
the partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nominee.
In Hoke County
divorce records,
Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife said in
1995 that he had claimed
to be the Messiah, had
traveled to New Jersey
to raise his stepfather
from the dead, believed
God would drop a 1,000mile high pyramid as
the New Jerusalem on
Greenland and found
the Ark of the Covenant
in Arizona. A doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
evaluation the following
month said Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio
used marijuana almost
daily, had been living
with another woman for
several months, had once
been in drug treatment

ton are willing to go to
any length and use any
unscrupulous tactic to
try to destroy somebody,â&#x20AC;?
he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They think that
theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re losing their control over the Republican
party. People like me have
refused to leave the party
and decided instead to
reform it and bring it
back to its roots.â&#x20AC;?
Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio was the
leader in a Republican
primary vote earlier this
month but didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get
enough votes to avoid a
runoff. He faces former
television sportscaster
Harold Johnson in a
runoff vote June 22 for
the 8th District, which
extends from Charlotte
to Fayetteville. The GOP
is targeting Democratic
Rep. Larry Kissell, who
won the seat two years
ago after many years of
Republican control.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;With Tim
Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio, you have a
lot of serious issues here
that raise grave doubts
about his ability to beat
congressman Kissell,â&#x20AC;?
said Andy Sere, a spokesman with the National
Republican Congressional Committee.

for heroin dependence
and was jailed a couple of
times as a teenager.
The doctor concluded
that his religious beliefs
were not delusional. A
judge wrote in a child
support ruling a few years
later that Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio
was a self-described
â&#x20AC;&#x153;religious zealotâ&#x20AC;? who
believed the government
was the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Antichrist.â&#x20AC;? The
judge said he was willfully failing to make child
support payments.
Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio declined
Monday to discuss the
specifics of his past and
refused to confirm or
deny the details of the
court documents. He
acknowledged having â&#x20AC;&#x153;a
troubled upbringingâ&#x20AC;? but
said he changed his life
16 years ago when he had
a religious conversion.
The documents from
the doctor assessing
him during the divorce
indicated that he was
still smoking marijuana
daily after the religious
conversion, something
Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Annunzio would not
discuss.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The bigger story is
that the power brokers in
Raleigh and in Washing-

RALEIGH

Tote withdraws as mental health director
RALEIGH (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The
stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s troubled mental health system faced
another setback Monday
when an advocate for the
mentally ill named last
week to run the agency
withdrew from the post
due to a flap over some
tax problems at the group
he ran.
John Tote, who
until recently was the
executive director of the
Mental Health Association in North Carolina,

and Health and Human
Services Secretary Lanier
Cansler announced that
he wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t become the
next state mental health
director.
Toteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s departure came
on the same day he was
slated to report to work
for the state. Cansler and
Tote said public discussion
about payroll tax issues
was too distracting at a
time when the focus needs
to be on helping patients
and their families.

Records at the North
Carolina Secretary of
Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office show federal

Stock Footnotes: g = Dividends and earnings in Canadian dollars. h = Does not meet continued-listing standards. lf = Late filing with SEC.
n = New in past 52 weeks. pf = Preferred. rs = Stock has undergone a reverse stock split of at least 50 percent within the past year. rt =
Right to buy security at a specified price. s = Stock has split by at least 20 percent within the last year. un = Units. vj = In bankruptcy or
receivership. wd = When distributed. wi = When issued. wt = Warrants. Gainers and Losers must be worth at least $2 to be listed in tables
at left. Most Actives must be worth at least $1. Volume in hundreds of shares. Source: The Associated Press. Sales figures are unofficial.

COVINGTON, La. (AP)
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The Obama administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point man on
the oil spill rejected the
notion of removing BP
and taking over the crisis
Monday, saying the government has neither the
companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expertise nor
its deep-sea equipment.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;To push BP out of the
way, it would raise the
question, to replace them
with what?â&#x20AC;? Coast Guard
Commandant Thad Allen,
who is heading the federal response to the spill,
said at a White House
briefing.
The White House is
facing increasing questions about why the
government canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t assert
more control over the
handling of the catastrophe, which unfolded after
a BP offshore drilling rig
blew up April 20.
All of BPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attempts to
stop the leak have failed,
despite the oil giantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
use of joystick-operated
submarine robots that
can operate at depths no
human could withstand.
Millions of gallons of
brown crude are now
coating birds and other
wildlife and fouling the
Louisiana marshes.
BP is pinning its hopes
of stopping the gusher
on yet another technique
never tested 5,000 feet
underwater: a â&#x20AC;&#x153;top kill,â&#x20AC;?
in which heavy mud and
cement would be shot
into the blown-out well
to plug it up. The top kill
could begin as early as
Wednesday, with BP CEO
Tony Hayward giving it a
60 to 70 percent chance
of success.
Allen said federal law
dictated that BP had to
operate the cleanup, with
the government overseeing its efforts.

AP photo

BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward asks members of the media to step back as he walks
along Fourchon Beach in Port Fourchon, La., Monday. Hayward visited the beach to
observe efforts to clean oil that washed ashore from last monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Deepwater Horizon
oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re exhausting
every technical means
possible to deal with that
leak,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am satisfied with the coordination thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on.â&#x20AC;?
Interior Secretary Ken
Salazar suggested over
the weekend that the government could intervene
aggressively if BP wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
delivering. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If we find that
theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not doing what
theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re supposed to be
doing, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll push them
out of the way appropriately,â&#x20AC;? he said.
But asked about that
comment Monday, Allen
said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more of a
metaphor.â&#x20AC;?
Allen said BP and the
government are working closely together, with
the government holding
veto power and adopting
an â&#x20AC;&#x153;inquisitorialâ&#x20AC;? stand
toward the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
ideas. The commandant
also said the government
has the authority to tell BP
what to do, and such orders carry the force of law.

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Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano also took a more
measured tone at a news
conference Monday in
Galliano, La., with Salazar
and six U.S. senators who
had flown over the coast
to see the damage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We
continue to hold BP responsible as the responsible party, but we are on
them, watching them,â&#x20AC;?
she said.
BP said it is doing all
it can to stop the leak.
Its chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, made
the rounds of network
morning news shows to
say that the company
understands people are
frustrated.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Clearly Secretary
Salazar is telling us that
we need to do this as
expediently as we can,â&#x20AC;?
Suttles said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And of
course we are.â&#x20AC;?
Hayward, BPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chief
executive, walked along
oil-soaked Fourchon
Beach and said he had

underestimated the
possible environmental
effects.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m as devastated as
you are by what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen
here today,â&#x20AC;? Hayward told
reporters after he spoke
with cleanup workers in
white overalls and yellow
boots, some shoveling
oily sand into garbage
cans. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are going to do
everything in our power
to prevent any more oil
from coming ashore,
and we will clean every
last drop up and we will
remediate all of the environmental damage.â&#x20AC;?
Mark Kellstrom, an
analyst with Summit,
N.J.-based Strategic Energy Research, said time
might be running out for
BP to continue calling
the shots. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The rhetoric
is growing up in Washington for the politicians
to kick out BP and let the
government take over,â&#x20AC;?
Kellstrom said, though he
added that it would be a
mistake.

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Obama working on
a compromise on
gays in military
WASHINGTON (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A proposal to step up the repeal of
the ban on gays and lesbians
serving openly in the military
but still allow the Pentagon
time â&#x20AC;&#x201D; perhaps even years
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to implement new policies
was being discussed Monday
by administration officials and
gay rights activists.
The White House had hoped
lawmakers would delay action
until Pentagon officials had
completed their study so
fellow Democrats would not
face criticism that they moved
too quickly or too far ahead of
public opinion in this election
year. Instead, administration
officials now expect Congress
to move ahead this week
even though advocates on
both sides say itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not clear
there are enough votes to lift
the 1993 ban.
Under the proposal emerging from talks at the White
House, Congress would
remove the Clinton-era â&#x20AC;&#x153;donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
ask, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t tellâ&#x20AC;? law even as
the Pentagon continues an
ongoing review of the system.
Implementation of policy for
gays serving openly would
still require the approval of
President Barack Obama,
Defense Secretary Robert
Gates and the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm.
Mike Mullen. How long implementation might take was not
known.

Blumenthal
apologizes for
Vietnam mistakes
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Criticized for saying he
â&#x20AC;&#x153;regretsâ&#x20AC;? misstatements he
made about his military service during the Vietnam War,
Connecticut Senate candidate
Richard Blumenthal is now
apologizing.
On Monday and late the
night before, the Democrat
told various media outlets
that he made mistakes and is
sorry for them.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think he wants to put this
behind him. He wants to start
getting back to talking about

the issues that matter most
to the people of Connecticut
and start talking about who
is going to best represent
the people of Connecticut
in Washington,â&#x20AC;? said Maura
Downes, a campaign spokeswoman.
The stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commander of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars
of the U.S., Richard G. DiFederico, had issued a statement
Friday demanding an apology
from Blumenthal.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;This issue isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t about Mr.
Blumenthalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great service
to the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s veteran and
military population, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about
him refusing to apologize for
claiming to be something he
is not,â&#x20AC;? DiFederico said in his
written statement. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The attorney general was considered
one of the best friends a veteran could have in our state.
It is a true shame that he
let a false claim of Vietnam
service change all that.â&#x20AC;?

Violent, property
crimes both down for
3rd-straight year

WASHINGTON (AP) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Crime
in the United States dropped
dramatically in 2009, bucking
a historical trend that links
rising crime rates to economic
woes. Property crimes and
violent offenses each declined
about 5 percent, the FBI said
Monday, citing reports from
law enforcement coast to
coast.
It was the third straight year
of declines, and this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
drops were even steeper than
those of 2007 and 2008,
despite the recession.
There were words of caution
from experts.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fabulous news, but I
would draw an analogy to
global warming: Even if you
believe the long-term trend is
increasing temperatures, it
doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have
a cold year,â&#x20AC;? said Jonathan P.
Caulkins, a professor of public
policy at Carnegie Mellon
Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Heinz College.
Last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decline was
5.5 percent for violent crime,
including 7.2 percent for
murders. The rate for property
crime was down 4.9 percent,
the seventh consecutive drop
for that category.

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